Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Interview

Paradox Interactive senior product manager Florian Schwarzer took some time to sit down with World of Darkness News for a quick interview about Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, specifically focused on the CRPG sequel’s “art and design philosophy”. A couple of questions and their answers to placate your hunger:

WoD News: One of the most atmospheric parts of BL1, for me, was how everything was varying degrees of gritty, dirty, in disrepair combined with the Gothic stone and iron architecture. Everything flowed, visually, flawlessly on that level. Is the art team mindful of that vibe and are they going more for their own take, interpretation on those concepts or will it be like an updated BL1 feel?

Florian Schwarzer: The atmosphere of Bloodlines 1 was very much derived from Los Angeles in the 90s, and Bloodlines 2 is all about modern-day Seattle. The city has a great mix of old and new – architecture from the mid-19th century when the city was founded as well as modern infrastructure that has recently been built up from the technology industry boom the city has been experiencing. Bloodlines 2 also draws on the incredible, and oftentimes dark, history of the city. For instance, a fire destroyed much of Seattle’s central business district in 1889, and the city was rebuilt on top of the ruins. To this day there is a literal underground which, along with Seattle’s other turn-of-the-century locations like Pioneer Square, play into our setting and narrative substantially.

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WoD News: Can you give us a general overview of what kind of character customization we will have? Will it be set ‘faces’ (as in XCOM) or full customization (like The Sims)?

Florian Schwarzer: Bloodlines 2 will feature a deep character creation system with a high level of customization. You may have noticed that over the last years, slider-based character creators have become more and more the purview of games with stylized (e.g., comic) art styles, while most high-definition titles opt to let you compose yourself from ranges of options. We’re no different from most high-definition titles of late.

In addition to the character customization options, players can pick their pronoun regardless of their sex or appearance. Players can also pick their background, ranging from things like police officer to barista, and these choices affect the way some NPCs will interact with them.